The Dark
The Dark is the seventeenth map in the Zombies series, and finale to the Dark Tears storyline. It is set in Paris, France, immediately after the events of Recuperation. It features a new mode of fighting, round progression and advanced AI feature on Zombies to increase the difficulty. Story The Dark is set on the night of 23rd December 2013, the day after the Earth was struck with missiles and Richtofen took control of the Zombies. After battling their way through the world, the Original Group (Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki and Samantha Maxis in Richtofen's body) and the Celebrity Group (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker) eventually met up with members of Group 935, and eachover. The War between Group 935 and the Illuminati has escalated to full-scale on this day, and the Illuminati have learnt that something Group 935 built in Paris could strip Richtofen from his seat of power remotely. Under the command of a mysterious Illuminati Commander, the Illuminati members and their insidious Allseeing Eye forces have fortified Paris to prevent Group 935 and the Inner Circle from reaching this object to stop Richtofen. They aren't going to back down without a fight, and with a horde of Zombies between all of this, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Overview The Dark is an incredibly large map, however it is cut into sections which the players can enter. It is mostly streets, but some buildings can be entered for camping or sniping, and some buildings can be entered which spawn Allseeing Eye forces. The most notable feature in the map is the introduction of a new round feature. Due to the large amount of ranged enemies in the map, a round is completed by both killing all of the Zombies in the street, and killing any ranged enemies shooting down at the group. Besides the number of Zombies, difficulty is increased as rounds progress. Range enemies get more health, accuracy and damage. They do not, however, get an increase in any of these attributes after Round 20, unless the map would become too difficult. Each round, ten Inner Circle members will accompany the player. 5 will be standard soldiers, 1 will be a sniper, and the other three will be explosives experts. They target Allseeing Eye Forces before Zombies, which means unless protected, they most often get swarmed and die. Whilst there are no special rounds, Max Ammo can be obtained by killing The Thief or a swarm of Hellhounds which appear randomly at any Round after 4. The Zombies AI has been improved slightly. They now often try to target AIs as opposed to players, to give them breathing space to kill ranged enemies. Zombies also no longer "train", and can't be funnelled into a line anymore, as they tend to run in a large group (akin to most Zombies series). They also double hit much less often, and they take much more damage from knife attacks to the head, and will pause for a moment when stabbed. Musical Easter Eggs still follow the old system of being in groups. However, some songs (such as Monster, So Happy I Could Die, Speechless, Run to the Hills, Back in the U.S.S.R and Let It Be) are activated individually. All musical easter eggs also reward the player for activating them (for example activating Alejandro grants the player a random revolver, and activating Dark Side gives the player a Quantum Entanglement Device). Mystery Boxes now spawn in couples, so two may be on the map at any given time due to it's size. Perk-A-Colas can be found in places which serve drinks (for example, Deadshot Daiquiri is found in a bar, and Speed Cola is found in a Supermarket). The major easter egg of the map is Tears of the Dark, which focuses on the main battle at hand, and takes the player through parts of the map unavailable in normal play, and concludes the Dark Tears storyline. Ending Cutscene Note: This cutscene only plays if the player has completed the major easter egg (Samantha will place in the final numbers required to activate the weapon. She finishes, and the Eiffel Tower glows an azure blue. The Illuminati General twitches, before standing up again, blood dripping on his face and armour onto the floor) Illuminati General: You fools, why do you delay the inevitable victory over Group 935? Takeo Masaki: (pulling his Katana out) We do not delay you victory, we will win once all of you are dead. (Dark Side begins to play in the background) Samantha Maxis: You ordered zat efil Richtofen to kill my fazzer, you will die! (Sam snatches Takeo's katana out of his hand and charges at the General, a murderous rage viewable in her eyes. As she swings the Katana at the General, he grips the Katana with his hand, completely immune to the strength behind it and rips it out of Sam's hands. Before Sam can do anything, he shoves the Katana into her stomach. Dempsey and Nikolai spray into the General with their Thompsons, but he slowly approaches them both and swiftly slices both of their necks, dropping both of them to floor. Takeo pulls out his Wunderwaffe DG-2) Takeo: General... (The General turns, and Takeo fires the Wunderwaffe, causing him to stumble back a few steps and falls into the hole in the centre of the platform. A blue beam then fires into the hole, disintegrating the General and fires upward into the sky) Takeo: What is the weapons purpose? Sophia: It will destroy Griffin Station, so nobody can take control of the Zombies, just as Maxis intended. (The view turns to the beam as it rises further and further into the sky. Richtofen then realises what's about to happen, and he manually disconnects himself from the machine, and he can be seen running towards a room not seen in Moon, the teleporter's noise can be heard going off. The view changes again to Griffin Station, and it shows the beam colliding with it, obliterating it. The moon is shown having a small chunk taken out of it, and the view turns to Earth, showing the massive hole no longer burning, and it is just brown. Sam is then seen lying on the ground as she slowly dies, she imagines being with her father once more, haven outlived him by 70 years, she then closes her eyes. Her body is reverted back to her own, probably because Richtofen disconnected himself from the MPD, and she dies) Sophia: She's gone... (The rest of the group, including the celebrities remain in silence as the camera zooms out to show the entire Eiffel Tower as the beam slowly recedes and goes back to the catacombs beneath it, the music box noise from Dark Side plays for five seconds as the view cuts to black.) After this, the game ends saying "You stopped Richtofen in "x" rounds". Quotes Features *Upgraded Zombie AI *New round progression feature *Musical Easter Eggs give rewards *The Tears of the Dark major easter egg Trivia *The Dark is the only map not named after some sort of sadness or act brought on by sadness. *The Dark's name comes from the musical easter egg Dance In The Dark, it was done because Dance In The Dark is the inspiration song for the storyline. *The body of Jeferson can be seen in the starting room, this was done to link the events of Vengeance to The Dark further.